Easter Time in Point Place
by poeticgrace
Summary: A story about Jackie and Eric began and what happened after. One Shot.


"You kids grab your baskets inside and Grandpa will help you count the eggs," Kitty Foreman called into the backyard as a pair of brunette girls ran in after their much-taller brother with their bright Easter Baskets swinging beside them. She laughed her trademark giggle as she exchanged a look with her son. Eric was so grown-up now, fussing after the twins to wipe their feet and reminding his son to share with his younger sisters. "Don't worry, Eric, I've got it. Let us enjoy some time with our grandkids. You enjoy a rare moment of peace."

"Thanks, Mom," he grinned before sliding his arm around his wife's waist. Jackie smiled up at him and leaned her head against his shoulder while she smiled up at her mother-in-law thankfully. "We'll be inside in a few."

"No hurry," Kitty assured him before sliding the glass door shut.

They had been married for nine years now, after that long summer when Donna had decided to study abroad in Europe and Fez had gotten into the salon academy in New York. They had been bored, working side by side in his dad's muffler shop, just trying to forget the past few months of nothingness. And then the call came that Fez wasn't going to come back to Point Place after being offered a job at the city's top salon and Donna had fallen for a street artist outside the Louvre, and Jackie and Eric had ended up very drunk on the couch in the basement. One thing had let to another, and Jackie had woken up in his arms for the first time when the harsh rays of the early morning sun had infiltrated her very hungover brain. Four months later, they were married in a quiet ceremony at the county courthouse with only Brooke and Kelso as their witnesses, and Alexander Reginald Foreman was born just five months after that on an unusually warm Tuesday morning in April. Alex would turn nine next week.

That first year had been hard, Eric had to admit. He still hadn't been really sure how he felt about Jackie. It was hard to get over a lifetime of hating someone, even though he had never really hated her all that much. Jackie had worked at his dad's shop, running parts until her feet got too swollen and Red banished her back to the office to answer phones and do paperwork. Eric had just gotten on at the high school as a history teacher and made a pretty measly wage. Still, they managed to make it work in their tiny little apartment on Maple Street. Kitty taught Jackie how to cook and took it upon herself to start making clothes for Alex. Brooke and Kelso shared some of the things left over from Betsy, lending their crib, car seat and stroller. It was far from what Jackie expected as a little girl and far from what Eric wanted to give her, but she never complained.

Jackie had been Eric's backbone during that first year. He couldn't believe what a good mother she was. For someone who had never really thought of someone else, it amazed him how innate it was for her to take care of Alex. She was always there to reassure him that he was doing a good job as well, patiently showing him how to do things like change the baby's diaper or fix his bottle so that he could get up with him when he started cutting teeth. The two of them took to their new life naturally, and by the time their first wedding anniversary rolled around, Eric was sure that he loved his wife. She had turned out to be pretty amazing.

Eric was offered a new job outside Chicago a few weeks before Alex's second birthday, one with enough money that Jackie wouldn't have to work and they could still afford to buy a house. So, Eric packed up his family and moved to Illinois. He had lost track most of his high school friends by then, something he never thought imaginable at seventeen. Bob still called Red every few weeks to catch up and ask questions about their neighbors. Eric knew through his mother that Donna was living in London. Kitty had also let it slip that Hyde was in Vegas with Samantha again. Fez hadn't kept in touch with any of the Foremans, but Kelso usually knew what their foreign friend was up to these days. Jackie and Eric never asked questions for their part and had asked that Kitty and Kelso never reveal what was going on in their life. Donna hadn't even known that the former love of her life was married to her ex-best friend.

That all changed one cold Thanksgiving when Eric and Jackie had flown home. They had just found out that Jackie was pregnant with the twins a few weeks before, and they were going back to Point Place to surprise his parents and a very rambunctious four-year-old Alex with the news. Eric had been the first one to spot Donna sitting on the back patio when they pulled the sedan into the driveway. Jackie had gasped aloud a moment later when Hyde had come through the sliding glass door with Fez in tow. Brooke and Kelso had pulled into the driveway behind Eric's car a few seconds later with a sleeping Betsy in the backseat. Apparently Kitty had thought that this was the perfect time for an impromptu high school reunion.

"Oh, wow," Jackie heard Donna announce as she slid out of the car to help Alex out of the back seat. She glanced at her husband over the roof of the car. Eric just kind of shrugged as he unloaded their bags from the trunk. "I had no idea..."

"No one did," Fez replied in his thick accent. They probably thought they were being quiet but Eric and Jackie could hear every word. "Do you think that's their kid?"

"Of course it is, moron," Hyde retorted, reaching across the table to frog his friend on the shoulder. Jackie took Alex's hand but stayed back, waiting for Brooke and Betsy to catch up so that she didn't have to deal with this on her own. "He looks just like Jackie."

"Fez!" came Kelso's cry as he ran up the driveway to hug his friend. "I missed you, little buddy."

"I missed you too, big buddy," he said happily as Kelso whirled him around in a circle before setting him back on his feet. "Did you see Jackie and Eric?"

"Yeah, with Alex," he said nonchalantly before covering his mouth. "I mean...where?"

"It's fine, Michael, I guess the cat is out of the bag," Jackie announced as she stopped short of her group. Alex had already disappeared inside with Betsy in search of Grandma Kitty's famous pumpkin sugar cookies. Eric dropped the bags on the cement to stand behind his wife, wrapping his arms around her waist protectively. "Eric and I are married have been for five years. We have a four-year-old son that you saw run inside. His name is Alex."

"How did I not know any of this?" Donna asked sadly, looking from her former boyfriend to her old friend. "I mean, I feel like I should have known."

Jackie smiled up at Eric over her shoulder. "Not a lot of people here knew, I guess. Eric's parents and a few other people we used to know. I have to say, it's a miracle Michael managed to keep it a secret."

"Man, you knew?" Hyde asked Kelso incredulously. "How could you not tell us?"

"We were witnesses at their wedding," Brooke announced from beside her husband. She had become Jackie's best friend and was fiercely protective of the second-generation Foreman family. "I threatened Kelso with an inch of his life if he said a word."

"And Brooke is pretty scary," Eric teased, earning a sharp elbow from the statuesque brunette.

The rest of the day had been pretty awkward, filled with an unending question and answer session that annoyed Red, made Eric's throat sore and exhausted a pregnant Jackie. Kitty managed to stay out of it by entertaining the kids and tending to things in the kitchen. Eventually, Red went upstairs to watch the Packers game on the TV in his bedroom while Jackie dozed off in Red's chair in the living room. Donna visibly recoiled when he kissed the top of his daughter-in-law's head before disappearing. He had never been so tender with her but clearly had a soft spot for the brunette. She was almost jealous and hated herself just a little bit for it. When Kitty finally announced that dinner was ready, the whole gang was just grateful to have something to do besides ask questions and talk about old times.

"It's so nice to have all my babies home," Kitty tittered as Red grumpily carved the turkey.

"Uh, Mrs. Foreman, you realize that Laurie isn't here, right?" Hyde asked. Kitty waved her hand dismissively. "Right, well, thanks for dinner."

Everyone hemmed and hawed about how good the food was and made polite dinner conversation over the main meal. Donna talked about working in London while Fez told them about his clients in New York City. Hyde revealed that he had gotten divorced and was actually back living in Point Place running Grooves again, something that had gone unmentioned by Kitty in her weekly phone calls to Chicago. When Red asked if anything was new with Eric and Jackie, the couple exchanged a nervous look.

"Um, yeah, actually, we have some pretty big news we wanted to share with you," Eric announced.

Jackie set her fork down next to her plate before looking at her in-laws. "I'm pregnant again."

"Oh, honey!" Kitty said excitedly, jumping from her seat to hug Jackie while Brooke elbowed her friend subtly with, "I can't believe you didn't tell me!"

"We weren't telling anyone," Eric assured her before looking up at Kelso. "Including you, Kelso."

"Aw, man!" he grumbled. "I can keep a secret!"

"Yes, but only one at a time," Jackie reminded him. "But that's not all the news."

"We're actually having two babies," Eric revealed. "Jackie's having twins."

This time it was Red who jumped to his feet, coming around to shake his son's hand proudly before hugging Jackie carefully. The grin on his face was a mile wide. For all his tough love growing up, Red had taken to being a grandfather magnificently. "I hope it's girls," he mused before hugging Jackie again. "That's exactly what you need, sweetheart."

The girls were born six months after Thanksgiving, just a few weeks after their brother's birthday on a perfect afternoon in mid-May. Katherine Allison (Kate) and Madeline Brooke (Maddy) were complete opposites from the beginning. Jackie allowed Kitty to tell their old friends that the girls had been born, and a nice bouquet of spring flowers arrived from Donna. She was living in Madison now, and Kelso had let it slip that she might be seeing Hyde on the side or something. Jackie and Eric hadn't cared, being too wrapped up in their new babies to worry about anything outside their little family. Fez had sent a card and a pair of knit blankets he'd picked up for them. Kelso had brought a few cassette tapes with baby music that Hyde had sent for the girls from Grooves. It wasn't much but it was a start to getting their old friends back again.

Life had gone on by the time the girls turned two, and Jackie had thrown a small birthday party for them in the backyard of their new house in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago. It had taken a lot of courage for her to send the invitations, but eventually every one in the old gang had received an invitation. Red and Kitty had made the trip from Wisconsin, of course, their car weighed down with too many gifts for Alex, Kate and Maddy. Fez had come with Jessica, the hair model he had been seeing for about a year. Kelso and Brooke had come over from down the street with Betsy, who was almost old enough to start babysitting. Donna and Hyde had come together from their new home in Minneapolis. Even Laurie had shown up with her new boyfriend, a pitching coach from one of the Twins farm teams.

That party had been the beginning of repairing old friendships. Donna had become friends with Brooke and Jackie again by the time Christmas rolled around, and the three couples had celebrated together at the Kelso household. Donna and Hyde revealed that they were engaged over egg nog and had said "I do" by the time Fez flew back to Point Place with Jessica so that they could have a real All-American Independence Day with the old gang. Their foreign friend finally got married that fall, and Donna and Hyde welcomed their first son, William Robert Leo Hyde, into the world the next spring. They added another boy to their family just after the New Year, with Fez's daughter coming at around the same time.

The entire gang had reunited three months later to celebrate Easter at the Foreman household. Traveling from all corners of the Midwest, they had arrived with their families to their one True North to hide dyed eggs, gorge on candy, eat a nice ham and have a few drinks in the chilly Wisconsin spring and remember just how far they'd come since they'd lost track of each other in the first place.

"How's Alex doing in Little League, man?" Hyde asked, his eyes still hidden behind his trademark aviators. "Billy is having a really hard time learning to pitch. Good thing his mom has one hell of an arm on her. She's been giving him lessons."

Donna rolled her eyes at her husband. "Just be glad that one of us is decent at sports," she reminded him. "Poor Alex, look at his parents. He doesn't stand a chance."

"Actually," Eric announced curtly, "he is the starting pitcher on top-ranked travel team."

"Yeah, because Kelso has been helping him," Jackie revealed. Eric frowned at his wife. "Sorry, honey, but they are not going to believe that we turned out an all-star athlete. Donna's right. We're not really known for our athletic abilities."

"Haha, burn!" Kelso hollered with a mouth full of jelly beans.

"You stole my candy!" Fez realized. Jessica reached into her purse with the hand that wasn't tending to her baby and gave her husband a packet of chocolate candies. "Ooh, yummy!"

Brooke laughed at the exchange just as Kelso put out his hand for more candy. "Nope, you don't get anymore," she admonished him, sounding like she was talking to Betsy instead of her husband. "You took something that wasn't yours. No more candy."

"Aw, man," he grumbled while the rest of the group laughed.

Back inside the house, Kitty watched the circled group of friends laughing with a big smile on her face. She could hear her grandkids and her adopted grandkids playing in the living room, negotiating candy trades and laughing about the cartoon video Red had put on the TV. It was nice to have her family home – all of them, the ones that were hers biologically and the ones that she had made her own. Red must have sensed her sentiment when he came into the kitchen to pour himself another cup of coffee. He stopped at the counter and kissed the top of his wife's head.

"It's a nice sight, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically as the gazed out at their son and his friends.

"The best," she agreed with a smile over shoulder at him. "Happy Easter, Red."

Red leaned down and kissed her again just as the friends outside started laughing again and the grandkids in the living room started to fight over something. Kitty and Red laughed quietly to themselves before kissing again. "Happy Easter, Kitty."


End file.
